Tiberius Gracchus

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (169 BC-133 BC) was Tribune of the Plebs of the Roman Republic in 133 BC and a founder of the reformist Populares, alongside his brother Gaius Gracchus.

Biography
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was born in Rome, Latium, Roman Republic in 169 BC, the son of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and the brother of Gaius Gracchus. He served as a military tribune on the staff of his brother-in-law Scipio Aemilianus during the Third Punic War, and he was famous for being the first to scale the walls of Carthage during the city's fall in 146 BC. In 137 BC, he became quaestor to consul Gaius Hostilius Mancinus in Numantia, Hispania, where he negotiated a peace with the Numantines during a losing war, earning the respect of the Numantines and the scorn of the Romans, as only legates were supposed to be able to make peace. In 133 BC, Tiberius was elected Tribune of the Plebs, and he became known as an ambitious senator. He famously claimed that, "The wild beasts that roam over Italy have their dens and holes to lurk in, but the men who fight and die for our country enjoy the common air and light and nothing else...they fight and die to protect the luxury of others. They are called the masters of the world, but they do not possess a single clod of earth which is truly their own." The exaggerated speech was part of a successful electoral campaign, but he died that same year during a political riot caused by rumors that he wanted to stay permanently in power or even become king. His head was smashed in with a broken chair leg wielded by another senator, who was also his cousin. Just over a decade later, Gaius was killed in another bout of political violence.